So many Noise Pop shows, so little time. The great thing about this music festival is that you can relatively easily club-hop to catch more than one of the acts you’re cited about on a given night. So I did something I haven’t done for a few years: Go to…

Joywave performs at the Hearst Greek Theatre in Berkeley on Oct. 11, 2019. Alessio Neri/STAFF. There are four things fans of Joywave should know in order to understand the motivations of the Rochester, New York indie rock quintet. First is that Rochester is the home base of Eastman Kodak…

Metric performs at The Masonic in San Francisco on March 13, 2019. Joaquin Cabello/STAFF. I’ve spoken to Metric’s Emily Haines two or three times in there past seven years. But for their newest album, “Pagans in Vegas,” I interviewed guitarist Jimmy Shaw for the first time. The Toronto band is…

Super Bowl 50 media day at SAP Center in San Jose, Photo: Jon Bauer. Super Bowl 50 Media Day, this year known as “Opening Night,” can best be described as organized cacophony. At the center of attention are the two NFL teams vying for the title during the most-watched…

Julien Baker, courtesy. Julien Baker is one of our favorite new artists, and RIFF had a brief chance to catch up with her by telephone. Baker will be making her San Francisco performance debut at Noise Pop, Feb. 25 at Bottom of the Hill. Catch up with my full interviews…

Hibou, Courtesy. Peter Michel used to drum with San Francisco-Seattle shoegaze pop outfit Craft Spells, but two years ago got the itch to write his own songs and call his own shots. After taking a couple of years to write and record in his parents’ home, he’s back as…

FFS (Franz Ferdinand and Sparks). I really like Franz Ferdinand. I’ve caught pretty much all of their shows in the Bay Area since 2003, and have caught a couple of shows in Oregon before, as well. But this isn’t about Franz Ferdinand; this is about FFS. Over the past couple of weeks,…

Lindsey Stirling, Courtesy. She’s sold hundreds of thousands of records, charted on both dance and classical music charts—with the same songs!—while wracking up countless spins on YouTube and Spotify. Yet when you talk to Lindsey Stirling, she talks with the passion (and speed) of someone who’s not sure how…

MisterWives, courtesy. If MisterWives had arrived in San Francisco for Outside Lands as just another pop band, the New York quintet left as something else. Sitting in the grass behind the Lands End stage a couple of hours after their set (where they played to one of their biggest…

Clean Bandit, courtesy. I didn’t know all too much about Clean Bandit prior to February, when I was offered an interview with the English electronic-classical band, alongside another unknown, Jess Glynne, just prior to the Grammy Awards. I wasn’t in a position to meet up with them in Los…